Chapter 27: Practice—The Fallen Zombie

In fact, the arrival of the poisonous zombies in such a grand, overwhelming fashion might not be a bad thing, depending on how you look at it.

Their appearance was like a brazen declaration to the world, forcing everyone to treat them with the highest level of caution. This way, people quickly realized that these new zombies were different from the previous ones—just a scratch could turn you into a corpse, unlike in her previous life, when they crept in quietly and caused countless deaths before their true nature was discovered.

But precisely because they came so suddenly, and in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep, it was easy to imagine how many people would be caught off guard and lose their lives.

Of course, Bian Changxi wasn’t worrying about the fate of the world—she was worried about Bian Kuang.

In her previous life, Bian Kuang had lived healthily for almost a year. Even the catastrophe known as “God Loves to Lie” hadn’t done anything to him, so this time, she hadn’t bothered to warn him. But now that history had changed, would he still be safe and sound?

And what about Chen Yisha? Was she okay?

And Bai Heng—how was he doing now, all the way across the ocean?

And, of course, Gu Xu.

Bian Changxi still really hoped he was alive and well.

Now, though, she couldn’t reach any of the first three, and as for the last one… it was better not to contact him. That would just be weird.

But it wasn’t just that. The change in history meant that all of Bian Changxi’s past-life experience might be useless. She could no longer predict what would happen next, nor know if some major event or important figure would appear out of nowhere. That made her uneasy. What unsettled her most was not knowing what had caused history to change.

With all these worries, and with the sounds of tragedy unfolding through the walls, Bian Changxi had no hope of falling back asleep. She checked the time—it was a little after three in the morning. After sitting in a daze for a while, she went to the living room, turned on two flashlights, and began gathering the scattered food and supplies from the floor into her jade bracelet’s farm space. There was no need to sort anything; once inside, the farm’s warehouse would automatically organize it.

The only inconvenience was that she had to touch each item with her left hand—the one wearing the jade bracelet—to store it away. Bian Changxi remembered that after the farm upgraded and expanded to a certain level, she’d be able to just wave her hand and collect everything in sight. Now that would be truly handy.

After gathering everything from the floor, her back was sore. She went on to store the bed, wardrobe, and desk from the bedroom; the sofa, coffee table, chairs, and water dispenser from the living room; and the toiletries, comb, and hairdryer from the bathroom. As for the kitchen, since the gas was still on and she’d need to cook, she decided to leave it for later.

No one had ever lived in this apartment, so all the furniture was brand new. It would be a shame not to take it, even if she might get better stuff later. Bian Changxi had long since developed the habit of wasting nothing—not a single drop. In the apocalypse, especially in the first two or three years before technology caught up, every resource was precious. Besides, the farm’s warehouse was huge; there was no need to worry about space.

After this round of scavenging, the apartment felt much more spacious. Bian Changxi stood at the edge of the flashlight’s beam in the center of the room. The ceiling above thudded and shook—probably the people upstairs fighting zombies—making her chandelier sway dangerously. She stepped aside, lowered her head, and focused her energy. Suddenly, she flicked her hand, and a vine as thick as her thumb shot out, instantly wrapping around the steel bars of the security window outside the living room. The other end was coiled in her hand.

She pulled back on the vine—gently at first, then with increasing force. The steel bar slowly bent, and with a sharp clang, snapped in two.

Bian Changxi lost control for a moment, stumbling back two steps before regaining her balance. She hurriedly retracted the vine and examined it carefully. There were only a few faint scratches on it.

She was overjoyed. Her wood ability was so much tougher in this life! She was only at the first tier, so the vines she produced should have been soft and fragile, not strong or resilient, and certainly not able to withstand such force.

Looking closely, she noticed faint red streaks flickering like lightning inside the vine’s stem before quickly disappearing. She didn’t know what that meant, but her instincts told her it wasn’t a bad thing, so she shook her head and let it go.

She steadied herself, faced the TV wall, took a deep breath, and gathered her power. With a wave, two wooden spikes shot out, thudding into the wall. But before she could get excited, the exposed ends of the spikes slowly drooped, then both fell to the floor.

Bian Changxi’s mouth twitched. She walked over to check—the pristine white wall only had two very shallow dents, with just a bit of dust scraped off.

Zombie bones were much tougher than walls…

She picked up the thick wooden spikes, weighing them in her hand. Suddenly, she pressed them against the wall with both hands, trying to drive them in. Instead, the wall remained unscathed, the spikes shattered, and her fingers cramped from the impact.

Rubbing her fingers ruefully, she heard a noise behind her. She turned—and came face to face with the terrifying visage of a zombie.

Even with her strong nerves, she jumped in fright. On closer inspection, the zombie was clinging to the outside of the security window. She’d opened the curtain and window earlier while testing the vine, and now the zombie was pressed against the spot where the steel bar had snapped, its rotting, oozing face jammed into the gap, snarling into the room.

Bian Changxi looked it up and down and immediately understood—it must have been knocked down by the people upstairs fighting zombies, and now it had managed to hang onto her security window.

“Raaah—” The zombie, unable to reach the tasty morsel inside, scratched furiously at the window and slammed its head against it. Suddenly, it wedged its head into the broken gap and got stuck. Its bulging, pupil-less eyes stared in, blood and yellowish slime pouring from its mouth and splattering everywhere as it howled, both hands straining forward and making the window shake.

Bian Changxi stared silently at the zombie. Sure enough, it was a poisonous one. Although it was quite decomposed, it was in better shape than the non-poisonous zombies—its skin and muscles tinged with a bluish-gray, its nails long, sharp, and black, and its saliva faintly greenish-black. The stench it emitted was not only foul but also made her chest tight and her nose itch.

Bian Changxi knew that was the smell of corrosion. The saliva of poisonous zombies was toxic. Ordinary people should avoid contact as much as possible—it wouldn’t turn you into a zombie, but it could cause ulcers, sores, and peeling skin. For ability users, the risk was lower. Fortunately, after a month or so, everyone would develop basic immunity to these toxins.

So, after the apocalypse, there would be no shortage of people with disfigured faces…

Bian Changxi stepped closer, eager to try her hand. As zombies leveled up, they would become more and more uniform. Some high-level special zombies, aside from their slow movements, inability to speak, strange skin color, and lack of pupils, would almost look human at first glance—and, of course, their methods would be far more sophisticated. All the more reason to cherish these primitive, savage zombies.

Most importantly, because her wood ability was fragile and she’d fallen behind in level, it had been ages since she’d personally cracked open a zombie’s crystal core.

Her eyes gleamed as she locked onto the zombie’s mildly festering head. With a flick of her hand, a green vine shot out, tightly binding the zombie’s flailing arms.

******

Sorry for the late update today—I forgot to save it in my drafts and only rushed back to post after class. Not much happened in this chapter, but next chapter, some new characters will appear."